ZAMBOANGA CITY, 29 December 2003 — Government soldiers have captured two sub-leaders of the Al-Qaeda-linked Abu Sayyaf group in separate raids in Zamboanga City, according to a Philippine Army report.
The report said troops captured Mohammad Said, alias Commander Kaiser Said during a raid on a rebel hideout in the coastal village of Recodo on Saturday morning.
Said was said to be a unit commander under Abu Sayyaf leader Isnilon Hapilon, who is wanted by the United States for the murder of its two citizens.
Said’s capture led to the arrest of another sub-leader, Alih Malabon, alias Commander Abu Nidal, an aide to Abu Sayyaf chieftain Khadaffy Janjalani, in San Jose village late Saturday, the report said.
Both Said and Malabon were in the military’s “order of battle” and each had a one-million-peso bounty for their capture, dead or alive. They are currently being investigated in an undisclosed military base in Zamboanga City, where rebels previously bombed civilian targets, killings scores over the years.
The duo were linked to the kidnappings and murder of California man Guillermo Sobero on Basilan Island on June 2001 and Kansas missionary Martin Burnham in June 2002 in Zamboanga del Norte province.
The military would not say anything about the capture or whether the Abu Sayyaf was plotting to mount fresh attacks in Zamboanga City, but their arrests had raised serious security concerns and safety of civilians against threats of terrorism.
On Saturday, a government soldier was killed and another had been injured while they were disarming a bomb planted by Abu Sayyaf rebels outside an airport in the southern Jolo Iisland. A second bomb was also discovered by soldiers on a road near the airport and had been safely diffused. It was unknown if the foiled bombings were connected to the capture of a senior Abu Sayyaf leader Galib Andang, alias Commander Robot, in Jolo on Dec. 7.
Andang was shot at least 10 times in both legs following a firefight after troops stormed his hideout in Indanan town.
Andang’s group had been linked to the April 2000 kidnappings of 21 mostly Asian and Western holiday-makers from the resort island of Sipadan and brought them to Jolo by boat. The Abu Sayyaf rebels also kidnapped dozens of foreign journalists covering the Sipadan hostage crisis in Jolo.
Most of the Sipadan hostages were freed after Libya and Malaysian negotiators paid $11 million ransom to the kidnappers and the military said the money was believed used to purchase weapons and to finance their violent activities in the south.
